


Experiment 00

by untokki



Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: Anger, Fluff and Angst, Human Experimentation, Implied Sexual Content, M/M, MAMA Powers, Self Confidence Issues, Self-Harm, Unhealthy Relationships, Wishful Thinking
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-11-24
Updated: 2018-03-06
Packaged: 2019-02-06 09:58:12
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 21
Words: 7,408
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12815073
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/untokki/pseuds/untokki
Summary: All Experiment 10 was good for was healing. All Experiment 00 was good for was silence.





	1. i.

Experiment 10. Houses healing abilities. A hemophiliac due to complications during creation. Given name, Yixing.  
This, as Yixing learned over many years, was the format of greeting every experiment was accustomed to, whether they were introducing themselves or a doctor was. Everyone had grown used to it, and no one questioned it as one of the lead doctors led a short man into the common room and introduced him in such a manner. “Experiment 99. Houses freezing abilities. No defects have been discovered. Given name, Minseok.”  
Experiment 99, Minseok, bowed completely as the doctor left through the double glass doors, earning a few greetings from the others lounging around.

As his power suggested, Minseok was seemingly aloof towards the other experiments. Yixing found this a bit off-putting, but bowed and greeted Minseok as he would with anyone else. Minseok’s tiny eyes widened as Yixing straightened his back. “You’re 10? There’s really that many of us?” Minseok asked hesitantly, as if he had never used his tongue before.  
Before Yixing could open his mouth, Jongin replied from where he was situated on the sofa, in front of the block television. “Before you even ask, we don’t know where those eighty-something other experiments are. I don’t think any of us really want to know, anyway.”  
Yixing gestured for Minseok to sit down before he made his way back to the piano in the corner of the room, sitting on the small bench behind it. The instrument had been added by his request, for what the doctors referred to as his birthday. He had to make the most of it.  
Minseok’s presence caused for one of the other experiments to perk up and almost throw himself at the man. Yixing could only watch as literal lights went off in the loud boy’s eyes. “Experiment 4. Houses abilities of light. Born blind from a defect of powers but was healed after creation. Given name, Baekhyun!” he barely took a breath between his words, Jongin mockingly fanning the boy with his hand.  
“It’s… nice to meet you, Baekhyun,” Minseok bowed his head politely.  
“You don’t need to humor him,” Jongin muttered as he stood up, catching Baekhyun in a light headlock. “No one likes him.”  
“Okay, listen, you asshole,” Baekhyun started, struggling to get out of the taller boy’s grasp.  
“Both of you need to stop,” another voice boomed, and Jongin disappeared in an instant, leaving Baekhyun to almost fall to the floor. From behind the piano, Yixing saw Junmyeon leaning on the doorframe to the hall that led to the sleeping quarters. He walked over to Minseok without so much as a glance at Baekhyun, who was writhing on the floor as if he was dying. Junmyeon put his hand out for Minseok to take.  
“Experiment 1. Houses abilities of water. Must be regulated hydrated. Given name, Junmyeon. It’s nice to meet you, Minseok.”  
Minseok looked to be in awe as he shook the other’s hand. “So you’re the first experiment? Wow.”  
Junmyeon only gave him a smile.


	2. ii.

From what Yixing knew, majority of the experiments were busts from the moment of their creation. The few that grew past their early stages, Yixing and his peers, weren’t even perfect. As most of them had defects due to their powers, they were still seen as weak. Yixing had heard the doctors say on multiple occasions that they wouldn’t survive in the real world. “Look what happened to Experiment 68,” one doctor had said, his voice raised.  
Yixing learned to never ask about the world outside of the facility after that. All he knew came from the scarce amount of books the doctors would give them, the three television channels on the ancient block of technology, and the glorious music. The small radio in Yixing’s bedroom gave him a better taste of the outside world, even if the thick walls caused the notes to fall into static more often than not. Music was the closest thing to healing Yixing had come across, other than his own powers.

A knock at his door sent Yixing out of his little sanctuary, and he let out a groan when he found Experiment 21, Jongdae, out in the hallway. “Um,” the shorter man started, jabbing his thumb in the direction of the common room, “Junmyeon and Chanyeol had a fight again. I think they scorched each other.”  
Yixing had to play the nurse for everyone, from the other experiments, to the workers. It seemed the only person he couldn’t heal was himself. Many times, Yixing’s hemophilia was overpowering, so much as a little scrape left him feeling dysfunctional.


	3. iii.

Yixing met Experiment 7 only once. His name was Luhan, and he could move objects with his mind. He was nice enough, but from what Yixing gathered, he was unstable. If he was angry, sad or excited, his powers would get the best of him. Luhan was the second experiment to go into permanent containment.  
The first experiment, only known to Junmyeon, Baekhyun and Yixing as Experiment 00, was a rumor to the others. Experiment 00 was supposedly even more unstable than Luhan, contained below the main facilities in what was known as the laboratories. After creation, an able-bodied experiment never went back to the laboratories. But, Yixing was an exception. The nurses called Yixing their personal miracle. When they needed an extra hand, or if they decided to slack off, Yixing couldn’t refuse helping them. It was times like this that Yixing found himself exploring the areas off-limits to everyone else.

What Yixing blocked out of his mind was the numerous rooms that looked like prison cells. He never dared to peek inside, knowing exactly what would meet his eyes. No one would want to see people like themselves, rotting away because they were seen as “broken”.

The hallway of rooms ended with a single door, looking as if it was reinforced multiple times. The small window in the center of the metal door was the only one Yixing was willing to glance in, because he wasn’t afraid of what looked back at him. Experiment 00 was the most handsome man Yixing had seen. He could only imagine the voice he had, never being able to hear him through the thick walls and door. All they could was smile at each other through that tiny pane of glass. Yixing utterly adored that gummy smile, and he never saw how such a gorgeous man could hold unstable powers.


	4. iv.

There were some days where Yixing just rested his arms against the cold metal door and nuzzled his chin between them, and stared into the stark white room. Yixing learned, through watching Experiment 00 so often, that he didn’t have much control over his abilities. It was common for the handsome man to float up, and Yixing found him with his back against the ceiling fairly often. It was times like this that Yixing couldn’t stay around and watch the other in awe, because the doctors would come in and check on him.

Yixing sat in the hallway as the doctors spoke to and inspected Experiment 00, his back against the cold cement wall. He pulled his knees against his chest when the heavy door opened and the doctors left, and he finally overhead what he wanted to know. The gorgeous experiment was named Yifan.

Yixing brought a notebook and pen with him the next time he was allowed near Yifan’s room, deciding he could attempt to start some kind of conversation. He didn’t mind just staring into his eyes, but he wanted something more.  
He held the notebook to the tiny window, with bold words written across the sheet: “My name is Yixing. Yours is Yifan, right?”  
When he pulled it away from the glass, Yifan looked surprised. He held up a finger before retreating further into the room, only to come back with his own paper. He scrawled something across it and held it up for Yixing to see. “You’re Experiment 10, aren’t you? Everyone around here loves you.”  
Yixing smiled a bit and was about to write something else, until the tapping on the window brought his attention back to Yifan.  
“Your dimple is so cute. I’ve always wanted to tell you that.”  
Yixing knew his dimple grew even deeper after he read that.


	5. v.

“Maybe I’ll do something so you can come and heal me.”  
Yixing blinked a few times after he read that, then hesitantly tapped on the glass to signal he finished reading.  
“Don’t hurt yourself on purpose,” Yixing wrote.  
“How else could I actually meet you?”  
Yixing didn’t know. He would love to actually hear Yifan, to touch him, to actually meet him. He scribbled on his notebook, “Don’t hurt yourself. That’ll only make me sad.”  
Yifan had a small smile. “I won’t make you sad.”  
“Okay. So smile for me.”  
When Yixing moved his notebook, his vision was filled with Yifan’s white teeth and pink gums, his lips pulling wide even if his mouth seemed too small for his face. Yixing wanted to kiss those lips, he realized at that moment.

“He says he doesn’t want our help,” a doctor said, his voice loud enough for Yixing to hear through the shut door. The nurses had told him to wait in the office, finding that there was something wrong with Experiment 00, and they didn’t want Yixing getting in the way.  
What was wrong, however, was that Yifan made an attempt to be able to meet Yixing.  
“What does he want then? He’s going to die like that, someone needs to deal with him.”  
“Have Experiment 10 do something. That’s all he’s good for, anyway.”  
Yixing was pulled into the hall faster than he could register the doctor’s words, escorted down the corridor to that familiar metal door.

The stark white room wasn’t very pristine, at least not as pristine as the last time Yixing saw it through the glass. The scent was distinctly of Yifan, even though Yixing had never been close enough to know that, but he felt it was the right description. When the door shut behind him, Yixing could only stare at the other man. Yifan sat on the bed, exactly the same as Yixing’s own, but red dripped across the white sheets. “Yifan…” he started, hesitating before he strode across the room and dropped to his knees in front of the man. He gently placed his hand against Yifan’s cheek to finally make real contact.  
Yifan’s smile was bigger than Yixing had ever seen, but the moisture on his cheek made it almost impossible for Yixing to return the look.  
“I told you not to hurt yourself. I said it would make me sad,” Yixing whispered when he looked down, seeing Yifan with his fingers folded, his elbows resting on his knees, and blood smeared across his wrist. The gashes in his skin were still red around the edges.  
“You’re not sad,” Yifan said, his voice as deep as Yixing imagined. “You’re happy you can finally see me. And it’s no worry, with this,” he motioned with one hand to the opposite wrist, “You’re Experiment 10. You house healing abilities.”  
Healing was all that Yixing was good for.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i'm only really willing to add more to this if a lot of people want to see it. i originally posted this on twitter, so that's why everything is so short.  
> i'd love any type of feedback on it, and please let me know if i should go on with it!


	6. vi.

The courtyard was meant for the experiments to get fresh air and exercise, but Yixing found it counterproductive when the grass was too small for even a dog to run around in, and it was encased in the center of the facility. The only enjoyable aspect was the open sky; the blue waves of the world outdoors and the white puffs of clouds that sometimes made shapes. The benches against the walls were metal and cold, but like everything else in the facility, Yixing had grown used to it. He leaned back and crossed his arms over his chest, watching as Chanyeol created tiny fires in the green grass, which was followed by Sehun blowing a small gust to ignite it further. A collective sigh came from the tall boys when Junmyeon immediately put out the flame.  
What could Yixing do?  
The bells chimed from the speakers in the walls, signalling it was time to get back inside before night rolled over. Everyone followed the voiceless order to leave, but Yixing dragged his feet towards the door. In the fleeting light, he found the black, burnt grass, and just stared until it was as if his eyes were what had become damaged. He dropped to his knees and placed his palm over the patch, as he would with any injury, feeling his body turn rigid as his fingers pulsed. When he lifted it away, the grass was as green as a spring day.

Yixing had been told just once that he was no longer allowed to visit Yifan, and that was enough to make him stay away; as if he was programmed to take orders and follow. It was because of this that he locked himself in his bedroom with a frown on his lips, not having anything to do to fill his day without visiting the man.  
He could remember so clearly, behind his eyelids, the way his palm was painted red with Yifan’s blood when he pulled away. He remembered the way Yifan smiled so widely it hurt Yixing’s own jaw, and the way he whispered a “thank you” before Yixing was pulled out. He longed so much for the man, having not seen him in three days. It broke his perfect schedule, the one he had planned meticulously since his first meeting with Yifan. His days revolved around seeing Yifan, and now that he had touched the man, it was hard to breathe properly without seeing that gummy smile every day.


	7. vii.

“What’s with you, moping around all day?”  
Yixing jumped when the sofa dipped beside him and that voice was directly in his ear, his head whipping around the see the speaker. Jongin’s legs were crossed, one arm around the back of the couch and inching precariously close to Yixing’s shoulders.  
He had never told anyone about his time in the laboratories, let alone about the existence of Experiment 00, so he merely shrugged his shoulders and shuffled closer to the arm of the sofa. “I’ve been feeling sick.”  
The other man raised an eyebrow. “Unless you’re bleeding, why would you feel sick?”  
Yixing paled slightly; he had never been a very good liar. “I’m fine.”  
“It’s weird,” Jongin continued, as if he hadn’t just heard Yixing speak. “You were disappearing so often, and in the past days, you’ve just been in your room or playing that piano. Something’s up, isn’t it?”  
Another shrug came from Yixing. He couldn’t tell anyone about what he was doing, or about his sudden reason for feeling so down, so he just kept his lips sealed. The only person he wanted to speak to was Yifan.

Yixing was never told about religion or believing in a higher being, though he had read about it in the books he was given. He could only assume it was the work of something greater when the lead doctor came to his bedroom, with a scowl on his face and his hands in his coat pockets. “Yixing,” he started, and when he found the surprise on the experiment’s face, his own softened. “We’ve heard from the other experiments that you haven’t been yourself recently. And, with your powers specifically, we can’t exactly have that.”  
Yixing just nodded his head; he definitely understood the concern. He wasn’t sure about the powers of his peers, but he knew his were greatly affected by his emotional state. It was the reason he kept such a level head in most situations.  
“Do you have a reason for this behavior?”  
He leaned back in his desk chair and turned the knob on his radio to lower the volume, before turning to look into the doctor’s brown eyes. He nodded his head. “You won’t let me see Yifan.”  
The name seemed to confused the old man, his eyebrows furrowed for a moment before the realization hit him. “Ah,” he nodded his head slowly, removing a hand from his pocket to stroke his chin. “You’ve grown attached to him, haven’t you?”  
“Yes, sir, I have.”  
“Very well. I suppose you can visit him,” the doctor turned to leave, then stopped to throw another glance at Yixing. “We believe he’s like you, with your emotions and powers. He’s been angry. I hope seeing you will change that.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> remember to leave your feedback!


	8. viii.

His heart beat rapidly against his ribs, his blood rushing in his ears and making him feel deaf. His hands were clammy, no matter the temperature drop of the underground laboratories. He had never felt like this, and it almost scared him. But he loved the feeling.

Yixing bowed deeply when the doctor unlocked Yifan’s door, waiting for the man to leave before hesitantly pulling on the heavy handle. Then, it was like his breath left him. From the first time he entered the room, everything was nicely kept, everything had a place. Nothing cluttered the floor, and Yifan’s bed was perfectly made. Seeing torn paper around the room, and jackets and shirts thrown over surfaces, was alarming. The bed was unkempt, like Yifan was tossing and turning rather than resting in it, and yet, the other man was nowhere to be seen. “Yifan?” he said, quietly, and he wasn’t sure he even heard it himself. He could hear a choked gasp, then, after a moment, Yixing felt arms around his waist. He was so warm, warmer than anyone Yixing had embraced, and he melted against the broad back behind him. “You’re here,” he whispered against Yixing’s ear, his voice rough as if he had been screaming recently. That probably wasn’t far from the truth.  
“I am,” Yixing replied softly. “Where were you?”  
“Flying. Against the ceiling,” Yifan admitted, and Yixing glanced down at the hands against his hips, then gasped softly. The other’s knuckles were red and bruised, blossoming into purple hues. He spun in his arms and took the large hands into his own. “What is this?” he asked.  
“I was angry.”  
“What did you do?”  
“I… punched the ceiling.”  
“Yifan…”  
“I thought, because you live up there, maybe you would know. You’d know how much I wanted to see you.”  
“Well, now I know, don’t I? I wanted to see you, too,” Yixing breathed out, running his fingertips over the purple knuckles, before closing his eyes. He heard a gasp come from the taller man just as his fingers tingled, and a small grin found his plump lips. When he opened his eyes, he found Yifan staring at him with a gaping mouth.  
“You’re so beautiful when you do that.”  
Beautiful? Yixing had never heard the word in reference to himself before.


	9. ix.

“Have you seen the outside?” Yixing asked softly, rolling onto his side, finding Yifan’s striking profile right in his sight. The other man glanced over, and just shook his head. Humming softly, Yixing lowered his gaze and began to draw patterns in the white sheets below them. “Have you seen the sky?”  
“Yes. I haven’t always been stuck down here,” Yifan admitted.  
“You haven’t?”  
“I was the first one they made,” he whispered, his large hand finding Yixing’s in the blankets. He didn’t speak again until Yixing hummed to prompt him. “They pampered me, because of that. I felt… human. Even though I didn’t know what that felt like.”  
“You are human, Yifan,” Yixing said, in the same hushed tone. He pushed himself up to rest on his elbow, his face hovering so close above Yifan’s. “You’re just different from most humans. We both are.”  
Yifan just stared at him. His deep brown eyes spoke so many words, more than any book Yixing had read. They weren’t readable, it was like the words in his irises needed to be sung. Yixing thought you could only hear music, but at this moment, he knew that thought was very wrong.  
“I think,” Yifan whispered, so quietly, Yixing almost missed it, “I think I’m different in more than just my abilities.”  
“Why do you say that?”  
“In the books I’ve read and the shows I’ve seen, and overhearing the doctors and nurses speak. Men always love a woman, and women always love a man. I am a man, but I think I love another man.”  
Immediately, Yixing’s breath stuck in his throat, and he feared his blood was truly boiling with the way his body heat up so suddenly. “Who is this man?”  
“Who do you think it is, Yixing? I’ve hurt myself twice now just to see you here.”  
Yixing had no words, but it wasn’t like any words could form when his mind was doing laps and his heart was attacking his ribs with the amount of beats it was experiencing.  
Yifan had sat up as well, and from the look on his face, he was longing for Yixing to reply. “It’s okay if you don’t love me, Yixing,” he said softly.  
“Yifan,” Yixing finally breathed out, his hands immediately raising to Yifan’s cheeks, where his thumbs rubbed against the tan skin, “I love you too. And I think love, no matter who it is between, is completely normal.”


	10. x.

“They didn’t make us, you know that, right?” Yifan whispered. His breath fanned against Yixing’s cheeks, and the taller’s arms were wrapped tightly around his waist from where he laid behind him. It had been days since Yixing’s first true visit to Yifan, and it was like everything fell into place again. Yixing was sure every negative bone in his body had been replaced by the other’s presence, filling him with what they both decided was love.  
“What do you mean?” Yixing asked, his eyes closed. His fingers entwined with the large hand splayed on his hip.  
“What’s your earliest memory?”  
Yixing bit down on his lip. “I don’t know… Meeting Junmyeon and Baekhyun, maybe? Being escorted through the labs to see the others?”  
“That can’t be your first one,” Yifan whispered. His lips brushed over Yixing’s neck and the shorter let out a small giggle at the touch. “I was the first experiment. They weren’t the best with what they were doing. I think they didn’t make me forget.”  
“What?”  
“I remember my mother,” Yifan said, and the room fell dead silent after his words were registered in Yixing’s mind.  
“What?” Yixing repeated, his voice wavering. What? _What?_  
“She was gorgeous. She was so tall, too. I remember her so well, and how she was crying for them to let go of me. Then it was all just… pain.”  
“Pain?” Yixing’s voice cracked with the word.  
“That’s why you don’t remember it. They didn’t want you to remember. Because if you remembered the pain, you’d be angry, like me. You’d be locked up without any care.”  
Yixing turned on his other side to look at Yifan, and found his eyes tightly shut, and his fingers were beginning to dig into his hip. “Yifan,” he whispered, but the other did not respond; his grip only got tighter.  
“Yifan,” he gasped, his eyebrows furrowed, “Yifan, stop it, you’re hurting me.”  
His words immediately broke Yifan out of his trance, and he gasped his apology and took Yixing in closer to his chest.


	11. xi.

Yifan, and two other experiments, were seen as defective, all because the doctors had made a careless error. With memories of their childhood, before they were taken into the care of the facility, they were angry. None of the experiments were supposed to feel any negative emotions.  
It was a wonder to Yixing how Yifan survived so long, knowing he wasn’t always in his current situation. Yifan could be walking among the people outside, living a life like they had seen in television shows and read in novels. Yifan could find love and settle down in a perfect life, with a career and with goals and with more than just four cement walls surrounding him. Yixing wished for that for the other man, but at the same time, he wanted to be selfish. He was glad, in some ways, that Yifan was stuck in the same building as him. They were trapped, but they were together.  
Perhaps, Yixing’s true wish was to live outside with Yifan. He knew love led people to believe and do stupid things, but he would risk everything just to live a fairytale life with the other man. He rolled over in the bed and kissed Yifan’s cheek at the thought, and the taller man almost immediately shot up with a red flaring face.  
“Sorry, should I not have done that?” Yixing asked sheepishly, following his movements, but slower.  
“No… It was okay.”  
“Can I do it again?”  
Yifan only nodded, and Yixing let a wide grin play with his lips before he leaned in to peck the warm cheek again. Then, everything went too fast for Yixing, and Yifan’s arms were around his waist, and the other’s mouth was too close to his own. He could only let out a breath and quickly cover Yifan’s pretty mouth with his hand. He pressed his lips to the back of his hand, and felt Yifan’s curve beneath his palm.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> feedback is greatly appreciated!


	12. xii.

Yixing cursed the sliding doors at the entrance of the common room, and the loud suctioning sound it caused when it slid closed. It was too loud for so late in the night, and while the doctors understood his wandering to his bedroom, his peers would not. He stepped quietly down the hall, and he could only breathe again when he reached his door. His relief was given too early, however. “Where have you been all day? Why are you getting in so late?” a voice came from his side, and Yixing only glanced up for a moment to see who the speaker was. Junmyeon had assumingly come from the bathroom at the end of the hall, and was heading back to retire to his own room. “Oh,” Yixing hummed, tapping his blunt nails against the metal knob on his door. “Just spending some time to myself.”  
“Yes, but you do that by means of playing the piano. You haven’t touched that in days.”  
“I haven’t been in the mood for music,” Yixing turned to Junmyeon and let a smile meet his lips, but not his eyes. “Can I go to sleep now?”  
“I’m worried, Yixing. It isn’t like you. I know you don’t like to bother anyone with your problems, but if something’s wrong, you should talk about it.”  
The taller shook his head. “Nothing’s wrong. Actually, everything is rather good,” He opened the door and bowed his head to Junmyeon, “So, good night, Junmyeon.”

Yixing dreamed of Yifan. He dreamed of his large hands on his hips, and his small lips pressed to his own. He dreamed of soft kisses, and tongues brushing shyly against each other as their hands and fingers roamed freely. He dreamed that Yifan’s hand heated the skin from his hip bone and across his stomach, and down, down…  
No, Yixing. Bad, Yixing.

Yixing cursed his own mind for supplying such images when he woke up with a painful heat between his legs. It had happened plenty of times before, as it would happen to any other man, but this was the first time Yixing knew the true cause of it. He was lusting after Yifan.


	13. xiii.

After his dream, seeing Yifan wasn’t the same for Yixing. His pleasant smile would make his skin burn, and the light touches would send Yixing into another world. He just hoped, in some sense, Yifan felt the same way.  
Every day he spent with the other man was in his bed, just laying side by side. It was uniform, as was everything else in their lives, but it didn’t hurt like everything else. It was warm to have another body near, warm enough that Yixing feared he would shrivel up just from being so close to Yifan. Even so, he wanted to be closer.

They had kissed each other’s cheeks numerous times, and clutched their hands and fingers together as if their lives depended on it. They hugged each time Yixing had to leave for the night, with the shorter’s face buried in Yifan’s shoulder. They shared lingering touches that was just one of them making sure the other was still around. Yixing had never touched anyone, let alone Yifan, so intimately.  
It started with a few kisses, on their lips and cheeks and chins, until Yifan’s poured out to Yixing’s neck, and the collarbones peeking out from his loose shirt. The lips against his delicate skin made Yixing flinch, his knees and thighs wrapping around Yifan’s torso, as the other had taken a place between Yixing’s legs. It took just a few kisses for Yixing to moan out loud, his hand flying up to cover the sensitive skin over his neck. With a flushed face and his black bangs matted to his sweaty forehead, he looked up at Yifan, who was hovering closely above him, and almost quivered. Yifan was watching him like prey, like a snake ready to fly through the air and take him whole. His breath hitched and his arms wrapped around Yifan’s shoulders, to bring him down for one last slow kiss before everything escalated beyond any dream Yixing had had.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i had a poll on twitter asking if i should take things,,, deeper in this fic (aka the options were "pg" or "nc-17")  
> nc-17 won on that poll, but i am a small bean that has read a ton of smut and has never actually written it. so, tell me, do i actually write a full smut scene or keep it to things like this? personally i think this is the furthest i would go shrug emoji
> 
> make sure to leave feedback!


	14. xiv.

“Why are we allowing this to happen?”  
“Would you prefer them to be angry? Would you prefer Experiment 10 to tell his peers everything? Experiment 00 is a distraction for him, and a good one at that.”  
“But sir, these are two men, they don't know what they're-”  
“You heard me. Now, get back to work.”  
Yixing almost fell forward as he started walking again, the door he had leaned against opening soon after he had gotten to Yifan’s door at the end of the hall. He had just exited the office, asking the doctors if he could bring Yifan out of the labs, to which they reluctantly agreed. He had left with a smile on his face, and a blush on his cheeks. His hands cradled against his chest and he had leaned against the office door, and that’s when he heard the conversation. He let his hand rest on the cold metal handle to Yifan’s room, his eyebrows furrowed as he stared down at the white linoleum floor beneath his feet. They knew. The doctors knew that he and Yifan kissed. They knew they were doing a lot more than kissing the night before. And, they didn’t care, as long as Yixing wasn’t telling the others. He shook his head before opening the door, finding Yifan sitting at his desk with his legs crossed. “Yifan,” he called out, and the taller man immediately turned around, a pen in his hand. “Can you come with me?”  
The man’s eyes were wider than Yixing had ever seen before, and his pen fell from his hand to the metal desk. “Come with you where?”  
“We’re going to go on a walk, is that okay?”  
Yixing had never seen Yifan move so fast, but the elder man was by his side in a matter of milliseconds. His large hand cradled Yixing’s, and Yifan nodded like an excited puppy. Yixing could get very used to such an expression on the giant’s face.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i'm very, very sorry that i only posted a single chapter with this update. this week has been horrible, and it's pretty hard to write a fic like this when you're crying every other hour... i'm sure we all know what i'm referring to.  
> i'm on winter break for the next two weeks, though, so expect at least a few more chapters out of me in that time.  
> i honestly have no clue where this fic is going. i have no plan for it, i'm just writing to write.


	15. xv.

Yifan was much like a newborn deer trekking through spring snow for the first time when they left his room. His large hand gripped Yixing’s as the shorter let the door shut behind them, his blunt nail digging into his pale skin, but certainly not hurting him.

It was the first time in a very long while for Yifan to leave his room for his own leisure. It was the first time where he didn’t have to fear the doctors sticking needles into his skin or inspecting him like a dying dog. He held Yixing’s hand tightly as the shorter led him up the stairs, taking a hall once they were on the main floor that was reserved for workers. He knew that know was allowed to see him, which did make him feel less than human. Even in the open world of the facility, with the wide and clean windows looking out into the blue sky and green forest surrounding the building, he felt trapped. Even with Yixing’s dimpled smile and glowing eyes gazing up at him, he felt that little human in him was still clawing at his chest to escape.  
Was he even human anymore, to begin with?

Yixing ran his warm hands over Yifan’s forearms, the pink scar that ran up his wrist was disappearing, but even Yixing’s healing couldn’t make it go away. It was a reminder to Yifan, all of his scars were. It was a reminder of his anger, and the emotions that tried to take from him. It was the reminder of what safety he sacrificed just to touch Yixing. It was a reminder of what they took away from his beloved. If he died, and Yixing was safe in the world outside, with a family and with people to help him get back into society, he would be the happiest corpse in the world.  
Yixing brought Yifan’s hand up to his mouth and kissed each of his knuckles, the skin around the joints damaged and still red from his scars. “Yifan?” he whispered, his breath tickling against the raw skin.  
Yifan peered into his face and hummed.  
“I think, for all that you’ve been through, you’re the bravest person I know.”  
“You’ve been put through the same.”  
“But, you remember it all.”


	16. xvi.

The sky had rolled into dark purple and blue by the time the doctors told Yixing to bring Yifan back to his room. They gave them a few more minutes in the center courtyard, the taller man laying with his back against the grass, with Yixing’s head perched on his chest. They stared into the starless night, the moon just out of sight, but it glowed brightly. “I loved space and galaxies when I was a kid,” Yifan said softly. “I wanted to live in space. In a nebula.”  
Yixing turned and put his hands flat on Yifan’s chest, then rested his chin upon them. He was silent to make the other continue.  
“I had so many books about space, and I couldn’t even read them. My mom always read them to me. I’m sure she still has all that knowledge like I do.”  
“How old were you?”  
“When?”  
“When they took you.”  
Yifan glanced down at him, then back up into the black sky. “I was seven.”  
Yixing moved, laying beside him, and took his hand. He placed Yifan’s onto his chest, and the taller could feel his heart pumping. “So you really do remember it all. That’s so young, but still, you’d remember.”  
“I’m sure you were around that age, too.”  
“I wish I could remember. I feel like my whole life has been taken from me. Like I’m missing a piece.”  
“You’d be angry too.”  
Yixing sat up and smiled, just as a doctor came to bring them back to the labs. “Who’s to say I’m not?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> where would you guys like to see this story go? or, how do you think it's going to continue? i'm curious


	17. xvii.

Yixing could have been a doctor. He could have saved people who would go on to improve the world. He could have given back to the country he came from.  
Yixing could have been a musician. His fingers could have pressed on ivory keys and made melodies for people all over to hear. He could have created something to make life hurt less for someone out there.  
Yixing could have fell in love with a beautiful woman or handsome man. He could have lived an enjoyable life in a house he bought himself, rather than in stark white rooms and halls.  
Yixing could have been something, and that was what made Yifan angry.  
He had no concern for his own life, his own hopes and dreams, or anything he could have become. He didn’t find any of that important anymore. He wanted Yixing’s happiness to higher than his own. He wanted Yixing to live outside of those cold walls, and go home.  
Maybe it was selfish. Yifan knew with his whole heart that Yixing wouldn’t be safe outside of the facility. Yixing wasn’t human anymore, and those people would know. Yixing was safer inside those walls than outside them, but Yifan knew one thing: his mind was a wreck from staying so secluded.

Yifan was never aware of love after entering the facility. He believed all humans could be was angry, or evil, or sadistic. It wasn’t until meeting Yixing, and bringing that dimpled smile to his face, that he believed humans could be two things: good or evil.  
Yixing was good. Yixing was the embodiment of good.  
Yifan’s mother tried to be good. Overall, she was good. She tried to save him from the grabbing hands of those doctors, and she cried upon losing her son to men of science.  
Everyone else was evil.


	18. xviii.

“Do you remember Experiment 00?” Yixing whispered to Junmyeon, laying beside the shorter man in his bed. The room was always so cold; it was a refreshing, seabreeze scent. At least, Yixing assumed that was what attacked his nose whenever he visited the older experiment.  
Junmyeon shuffled, turning onto his other side to look into Yixing’s eyes. He tried to pull the sheets up, to cover himself more, but the healing man was lying on top of them. Yixing didn’t even notice the inconvenience he was causing the other. “I do,” was Junmyeon’s simple answer.  
“What was he like? When he was first made?”  
“We only were together for a few days until they took him to containment,” Junmyeon sighed softly. “They told me that he wasn’t stable. Something was wrong with his brain. I didn’t think anything of it because, well, I couldn’t think yet.”  
Yixing hummed and buried his face into the white, limp pillow, smelling what he wanted to believe was the outside world. He always wanted to visit the ocean.  
“Why do you ask? You know we aren’t supposed to speak of him.”  
“I met him,” Yixing ignored Junmyeon’s gasp and proceeded with telling him about his beloved.

Junmyeon cried when Yixing finished speaking, and the taller man had to hold him in his skinny arms as he sobbed. Even Junmyeon didn’t know his origins. He didn’t know his memories were taken from him. He didn’t know he had a mother or father, or possible siblings.  
Yixing realized that some things were best left unsaid. He apologized in a quiet voice and kissed the crown of Junmyeon’s head. “It’s okay,” he whispered into the damp, black locks. Junmyeon’s body was always a little wet. “I think, soon, you can meet your mom.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> im really sorry this story took an unexpected semi-hiatus. i haven't been feeling the best. i hope to add to this again soon, though!  
> please leave feedback, it helps this story continue.


	19. xix.

“You shouldn’t have told him,” Yifan said, and he didn’t speak again. He merely turned on his side, away from Yixing. With the way he moved, Yixing was sure there would be green grass stains on the white fabric of his shirt, but it was still as pristine as ever.  
“It felt wrong to keep it to myself,” Yixing whispered, inching closer, but not touching him. He could only hear Yifan’s breathing, and the silence of the other was beginning to get to him. “I’m sorry, Yifan.”  
“It was supposed to be just us,” Yifan murmured. When Yixing sat up to view the other’s face, he found Yifan staring at the glass, his long fingers tearing at a single green blade.  
“What do you mean? It still is just us.”  
“He’s going to want to leave too, Yixing. He’s just like you. You told him there’s a world out there, better than the world in here, and he’s going to want to come out and see it, too.”  
The smaller’s hands drifted to Yifan’s shoulders then, smoothing the white fabric over his sickly colored skin and sighed. “Why can’t it be everyone? This is no place for a human, Yifan.”  
“If you say it like that,” Yifan spoke a little louder, sitting up and making Yixing’s hand fall away, “Then nowhere is a place for us.”  
“We belong in a place where we’re all happy and safe. I want everyone else to feel love. I want them to all meet someone like you. Because, Yifan,” Yixing began to whisper, quite the opposite from the tense form Yifan had taken on. He cupped the other’s cheeks and rubbed his thumbs against the skin. “You’ve already shown me how to feel love. Don’t you want everyone else to feel that love?”  
“Would it make you happy?”  
“It would.”  
“Then I want everyone else to feel loved.”


	20. xx.

Experiment 68 escaped ten days after he was created.  
He was said to have the ability to control time, but it seemed he could only freeze items in their place, like birds in flight, or a man running. It was how he got out of the facility; he had used his gift to keep the guards in their place, and he ran as far as he could.  
He remembered his mother and father, and wanted to cry in their arms and tell them the horrors of that facility. He wanted them to know he was still alive, but he surely didn’t feel like it.  
This was all Yifan knew of the younger experiment, and all he could tell Yixing. He didn’t even know the other experiment’s name.  
“It’s Tao,” Yixing added, at the end of Yifan’s story. Yifan only blinked and tilted his head, confused on how he could know that fact. Yixing just smiled and continued, “I know the name of all the experiments that succeeded. I know Tao is Experiment 68, and Luhan is Experiment 7.”  
“What about me?”  
“I knew you existed, but they never told me anything else. They acted like you weren’t real.”  
Yifan hummed and rested his arms behind his head, which allowed Yixing to rest on his chest.  
Yifan surely felt as if he wasn’t real, sometimes. It was the times he spent with Yixing, close enough where their heartbeats synced and moved as one. It was the times where Yifan was closer to Yixing than anyone had ever been, and the moments where Yixing looked at him with eyes that said everything his lips couldn’t manage.  
He felt, it would be a shame to lose all of that just to feel real for a moment.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> it has literally been a month since i updated this IM so sorry i feel like a little bitch ahhhhh  
> and im sorry i cant even give you guys much after so long! even after a break from writing this, i honestly still don't know where it's going. but i guess that's okay, ill just write until something sticks.  
> please leave feedback! it's my biggest motivation


	21. xxi.

Yixing kissed the tip of Yifan’s nose when the elder rolled onto his back, his lips lingering against the skin before pulling back. The taller man had his eyes closed, the movement under the lids almost hypnotizing Yixing. He rested his weight on one elbow and ran the tips of his fingers over Yifan’s tanned cheeks, leaving a trail of heated pink on the skin. He kissed his lips softly, nothing more than a peck, before his lips journeyed down his chin, and finally rested at Yifan's collarbones. A small groan came from the man below him, but Yixing understood the message he was trying to convey.  
Yifan’s shirt was laying with Yixing’s on the ground, and the younger man moved to sit on Yifan’s lap. His small mouth was returning the same treatment, pressing kisses against the pale skin pulled over his collarbones. Yixing’s hand covered his mouth, to keep any sound inside his throat, but the way Yifan brushed his mouth over his skin was too captivating. They moved down, down, like a feather falling from a high building. The arousal in Yixing stomach fell faster, like bowling ball, and Yixing couldn’t help but be reminded of the experiments of gravity he had read about in books. There was no escaping gravity, but with Yifan, he felt as if he was raised above the clouds.  
The white pants that covered Yixing’s legs were slipped off, with just a little help from the smaller boy raising his hips. Those large, warm hands ran over the waistband of his underwear, until those too fell to the ground. He was completely bare to the elder, with his lips kissed red and his collarbones sucked purple. His fair skin looked like a blank canvas, just waiting for Yifan to mark it full of his own masterpiece. Before Yifan could move further, Yixing’s small hands came to rest on his shoulders, signalling for him to move up. Yixing pressed a kiss to his mouth immediately when he was close enough, and whispered against the tender skin, “I love you.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> by the time most of y'all read this, it'll be my 17th birthday! :) (march 7)  
> so in honor of that, i posted this for you guys. make sure to leave feedback!


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